Welcome to Writing North 14: Care. All events will be held in the Main Lounge at St. Andrew’s College at the University of Saskatchewan (1121 College Drive) in Saskatoon. Three events – Friday’s River Volta Alumni Reading and Saturday’s Panel and Keynote talk events – will also be livestreamed, with the Panel and Keynote available for 30 days after the festival on SWG’s YouTube channel. We encourage attendees to wear a mask during the festival.
The entire festival is free. All are welcome. All times are posted in Saskatchewan time.
Presenter and host bios are available here.
Accessibility information is available here.
Friday January 26
River Volta Alumni Readings and Reception
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Main Lounge, St. Andrew’s College and livestreamed
Featuring readings by:
- Delane Just
- Mika Lafond
- Taidgh Lynch
- Jaclyn Morken
- Josiah Nelson
- Gayle Smith
Hosted by Daniel Bliss, Sara Krahn, and Owen Schalk. Reception to follow the readings.
Saturday January 27
Skills-Building Workshop “Caring for Ourselves, Performers, and Audiences: Better Readings for Writers”
with Leah Horlick
10:00-11:30 am
Main Lounge. St. Andrew’s College (in person only)
Join poet Leah Horlick for this interactive, skills-building workshop. We'll take a step-by-step approach to generating positive experiences for yourself, event organizers, audiences, and your co-performers. Let's explore practical and relational strategies to prevent burnout, manage stage fright, and break through stereotypes about artists that might be hurting us and our working culture in performance environments. Writers of all levels and experience are very welcome, including beginners who have never shared work in public before! This workshop will include options for group and solo participation. There will be no mandatory sharing or performing any work out loud. Bring a journal, a pair of headphones, and a device you could listen to music on if you think you might like to use them privately during reflection exercises. In the spirit of the theme of this workshop and the conference, please consider wearing a mask.
Prose Workshop “Fiction is a House Made of Details”
with Michael Christie
1:00 – 2:30 pm
Main Lounge, St. Andrew’s College (in person only)
In this workshop participants will explore what it is exactly that makes fiction engaging, emotional, and convincing. Christie will also discuss some concrete strategies to better develop the ability to captivate the reader, through the use of unexpected detail, conflict, tension, and specificity.
Panel Discussion “The Complexities of Care: Writing and Community”
with Michael Christie, Leah Horlick, Kristine Scarrow, and host Sandy Marie Bonny
2:45-3:45 pm
Main Lounge, St. Andrew’s College and livestreamed
In this panel, writers Michael Christie, Leah Horlick, and Kristine Scarrow, with host Sandy Marie Bonny will discuss the various facets of “care” in their writing about the environment, their communities, illness, and their writing lives. “Care” is a complex concept with a multiplicity of meanings, and takes shape in a variety of ways. These writers will address some of the ways “care” manifests, is enacted, asking: how do we care for each other as humans and as writers in our craft? How can our art take care of each other and the earth? What does care look like in our communities?
Keynote Talk with Gregory Scofield
4:00-5:00 pm
Main Lounge, St. Andrew’s College and live-streamed
Join Gregory Scofield for his Keynote Talk about writing.
The Power of a Poem
This keynote address looks at the power of poetry, and how poetry can direct and re-direct the journey of one’s life in profound and significant ways.
